Is this really a good idea?

On the road to Chicago and stopped for the night. Reading the local
paper in my hotel room and came across this ad.

Cat thoughts

What are you staring at me for?

You put this marble bowl on the floor ....and now it's part of my domain.

I shall now take a nap in my new bowl.

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I'll pass on the Spotted Dick...or Why I hate my new grocery store

I almost lost my mind yesterday.....just trying to buy some milk and some veggie burgers.

It used to be easy to shop for groceries.

I drove to my modest-sized store where I always complained about the lack of variety and quality of the items.....picked out my items along boring shelves....found my car and viola....I was finished.

Now....they've replaced my store and you would think I would be a happy woman.....but that's not true.

They built a brand new mega grocery which is confusing....too large....and takes forever to buy a few things.

It's like a warehouse...with miles of furniture....pillows....and aisles and aisles of food.....which now carry things like Spotted Dick or Israeli hummus.......but can you find the regular normal items you need? No.......and did the quality of the items improve? No......they just threw in a bunch of weird stuff....and tons of the same old stuff.

Take for example....my search for a good quality butter. I like President's Butter ...a butter I discovered in France.....but does this new mile long store carry President's butter??....No.

They added a Irish butter....and brought in more of their mediocre name brand butter....but still no French butter....which means when I go to Chicago I carry a cooler....buy 12 bricks.....and drive them home and freeze them.

The new grocery store is also so flashy for our area....everyone and his brother, cousin, and grandma are shopping there. So I'm faced with a new phenomenon....I loose my car.

I drive a black car....do you know how many crazy Southerners drive black cars? More than is sane down here....and so consequently .....even when I have found the milk and the bread and my veggie burger......I exit the store and can't find my car....which is now sandwiched in between a thousand other cars.

Oh I wish I could complain about my boring store again.....I wish I could shake my head at the "backwards" grocery business in my city......and move quickly and effortless down the aisles....now they've given me a store with Spotted Dick and towels.....and an in-store grill which belches smoke......and it's still not right.

Sigh.

Ouch.

My kitty was set to go to surgery today....but the vet called.

They will not spay her today....her platelets are very low, her white blood cells count low also.

Although she tested negative for leukemia....she may be infected.

Now it's a one month-6week wait.....to retest and see if she has cancer or not.

60/40% odds and the 60% is in favor of her having leukemia.

So my new little lovebug is home.....and guess we will just love her up and wait and see what happens.

Ouch ouch ouch.

I don't mean to get all emo on my new kitty but.....

I'm studying Old Testament/Biblical Hebrew and every time I pull out my workbook....Fancypants settles next to me...closes her eyes...and just listens to me....this pose was so darn cute....I had to snap a picture. Maybe she is a reincarnation of some old soul....lol

Happy New Year or The Day You Keep Kissing

I am worn out.

I think I have kissed a couple hundred people then kissed them all again this morning.

Today is Rosh Shoshana....the Jewish New Year.

Services were held both last night and this morning....and there is one more ceremony this afternoon.....where folks gather near a stream....and toss breadcrumbs into the moving water....symbolically casting off your sins...thus starting the New Year off ...fresh.

This is the second Rosh Shoshana I have celebrated and I'm beginning to get a feel for what the service attempts to accomplish and what it means. I downloaded an iPhone app of the shofar's(ram's horn) different melodies so I could identify them during the service.

Perhaps I have had one too many apple slices dipped in honey (a tradition on this day) but I am fuzzy and sleepy right now...and not sure whether or not I will take up an invitation to have a sweet dessert at an open house (and kiss everyone again!).....I still have to rummage around my pantry and see if I can find some bread crumbs for the ceremony later on.

Someone told me you can just tear up a slice of bread to use during the ceremony....but I think I'd rather find some breadcrumbs.....as people crumbs drift by I don't want my big hunky pieces of bread to stand out....Folks may wonder exactly what I have been up to this year....lol
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Fancypants update

My new cat, the little stray I took in....is doing great.

She's settling in so nicely....she's starting to be helpful.

Today, I'm cleaning out a closet.....and Fancypants has captured a stray hanger.
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What you don't know

I was staring at a picture of Stephen Hawkins this evening.

His new book is coming out in a week.

It's difficult to believe the grim twisted body of this little man holds genius.

It's something I've been thinking about all week....genius in unexpected people...because Mort died last week.

Mort was a small thin man with white hair and blue eyes. He smelled a bit greasy...old man greasy.

When I first started attending services....I noticed Mort right away.

He shuffled into the temple and immediately headed for the goodies on the Oneg table....a small table set up with appetizers. He rarely moved from the spot by the hummus dip and chips.

Mort never talked to many people he just hovered over his chip and dip.... so many people didn't interact with him.

One day, I walked up to him and said, "Hello I'm Gina" and kissed him on the cheek-a gesture which is customary before services. He looked up, smiled just a bit, and said, "I'm Mort."

That's it......and when services started he sat in the aisle seat in the first row and pulled out a large magnifying glass out of his pocket to follow along in the prayer book.

After services.....he was shuttled off by a driver.

So it was my custom to say hello and kiss Mort every week.

Sometimes when he wore a suit jacket.....I would say, "Mort you look dapper tonight." He'd chuckle and nod.

That was the extent of our conversation.

I asked people about Mort and was told he was a physician, in his 80's, retired and married. I never saw his wife. I expected her to be in her 80's too and probably too infirm to attend services.

When I received the email announcing Mort had died....I was stunned.

I saw him three days ago and he looked fine....correction....he looked like Mort always did....frail but resilient.

I attended the Memorial Service a couple of days ago.

I needed a chin strap.....

The family passed out a memorial pamphlet with a picture of him in his Navy uniform in World War II plus a biography of his life.

I was stunned.

He was New Yorker....Harvard educated....a leader in his specialty. He joined a practice with his brother who was described as very type A.....Mort took all the patients that needed extra time and patience. Most interesting was after her first marriage ended.....Mort started courting a woman 20 years younger than he was....he wrote her Shakespearean-type sonnets....stunning in their beauty and depth and skill with the English language.

On and on .....family members talked about his accomplishments....how he suffered a stroke 10 years ago and was told he would never walk or talk again.....well he wasn't a huge conversationalist but he walked unaided.....and he spoke plainly.

Perhaps not a genius.....but close to it....he had been a vibrant scientist in his community....but he looked like a little old man....and people treated him that way.....and I'm not sure how many people knew the near genius that lurked behind this old man exterior.

I'm not sure anyone asked......

If you saw Stephen Hawking in a hospital corridor....covered with a blanket without attendants....how many of us would withdraw and shudder a bit at the sight of this shriveled man....what could he contribute to the world?

Just theories about quantum gravity and black holes, string mechanics and the Big Bang Theory...to name a few.....

All that from a little shriveled deformed man......

I am not sure I can lay out what procedures or advances Mort specifically advanced....but I am a bit ashamed I wrote him off so easily....I'm a bit ashamed I didn't take more time to talk to him versus tease him about his sport coats.....what we see is not always what is there.

It is such a common lessons and one that is very hard to learn.